A Does question

Does an SEO company offer video optimization?

3 min read Cites 1 source

Some do, and the service covers two different things that should be priced and judged separately: making videos on your own website eligible to appear as videos in Google Search, and optimizing videos on a platform such as YouTube. The first depends on conditions Google sets out precisely, and the most important of them is that a video needs a page whose main purpose is that video. A company offering video optimization should know those conditions and tell you which of your videos can meet them.

Videos on your own site: the watch page condition

Google’s video best practices are built around the idea of a watch page. Google defines it this way: “A watch page’s main purpose is to show users a single video.” A video landing page or a video player page is a watch page; an article with a video embedded to support the text is not, because the video complements the rest of the page.

Two further conditions follow from Google’s guidance. It states: “The indexed watch page must be performing well in Search before its video can be considered for indexing.” And it adds: “Just because the watch page is indexed doesn’t mean that the video will also be indexed.” So a video inside a long article can help readers without ever appearing as a video result, and a company should be able to explain which of your videos are on watch pages and which are not.

The technical requirements

The same guidance lists practical requirements. The video has to be embedded on the watch page and must not be hidden behind other elements. It needs a valid thumbnail at a stable address, and Google recommends using a single, unique, stable thumbnail URL for each video, because thumbnails at addresses that change can prevent indexing. The video file should be in a supported format and, for features such as key moments, available at a stable URL. Structured data, video sitemaps, or other metadata help Google find the details of each video.

These are the checks a company should run on your existing videos before recommending new ones.

Videos on YouTube

Optimizing videos on YouTube is a separate job, with its own search system, its own metrics, and its own channel management. A company may do it itself or refer it to a specialist; ask which of the two you are buying.

Sorting your videos before work starts

Ask the company which of your videos are on watch pages and which are supporting content, how it will check indexing for each, how it handles thumbnails and video URLs on your hosting setup, and whether YouTube work is included. A clear answer to the watch page question shows that the company understands the condition Google’s video guidance is built around.

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